Case study: How ING works with its clients and customers to encourage sustainable practices

Stakeholder identification and consultation

Please describe which stakeholders (or groups/ types of stakeholders) you have identified, consulted, engaged, collaborated or partnered with for the purpose of implementing the Principles and improving your bank’s impacts. This should include a high-level overview of how your bank has identified relevant stakeholders, what issues were addressed/results achieved and how they fed into the action planning process.

ING is committed to an inclusive approach as the most effective means of making a meaningful positive impact. ING’s goal is to enhance its influence on issues ranging from climate change to human rights and financial well-being through partnerships and coalition-building.

For instance, ING became a member of the Net-Zero Banking Alliance in August 2021, updating its portfolio targets to align with global climate objectives aimed at achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.

Additionally, ING is collaborating with UNEP FI under the Principles for Responsible Banking (PRB) to help establish a measurement standard for assessing the financial health impact in its sector.

ING also engages with a wide range of stakeholders, including employees, shareholders, investors, suppliers, customers, labour unions, civil society organizations, political groups, regulators, and policymakers. ING’s stakeholder engagement efforts extend to include sustainable research and ratings agencies, peer banks, and standard-setters with whom ING seeks collaboration, as well as think tanks, academics, and other knowledgeable entities from whom ING aims to learn. ING conducts both qualitative and quantitative consultations with stakeholder groups for its materiality and human rights salience assessments.

Ongoing dialogue with its stakeholders can facilitate internal changes at ING, such as enhancing its Environmental and Social Risk (ESR) management policy and increasing awareness of its business’s broader impacts. In turn, ING can contribute to change and standard-setting by sharing its expertise with external platforms and think tanks, like the RMI Center for Climate-Aligned Finance, as well as participating in working groups connected to organizations such as UNEP FI and the Net-Zero Banking Alliance.

How did ING work with its clients and customers to encourage sustainable practices and enable sustainable economic activities?

In its 2023 PRB Reporting and Self-Assessment Template ING reports that it works with its clients and customers to encourage sustainable practices and enable sustainable economic activities as follows:

ING is committed to playing a key role in helping its clients transition to net zero by 2050. To enhance its advisory and financing capabilities in support of their transitions, ING is increasingly integrating sustainability and climate-related considerations into its decision-making processes. For instance, ING’s Green-Light Committee (GLC), which evaluates the alignment of potential transactions with the bank’s strategy and priorities, now also considers climate alignment when reviewing transaction proposals. The GLC analyses details on the (potential) client’s current climate performance, their net-zero targets, and transition plans, taking these climate-related factors into account alongside other due diligence criteria, including the client’s financial health and ING’s mandatory Environmental and Social Risk (ESR) screening.

ING operates under a regularly updated ESR policy framework, which it aims to align with evolving social norms and regulations related to sustainability while reinforcing its own strong commitments on the topics of human rights and climate change.

If clients that fall under ING’s ESR framework do not meet its standards and are unwilling to make necessary changes, ING will not proceed with the deal. ING’s approach to assessing potential clients and transactions involves engaging in dialogue and supporting them in improving their environmental and social impacts whenever possible. ING’s typical response to financing requests is, “yes, but…,” which specifies the improvements the company must implement first. ING believes that this approach allows it to create the most positive impact.

UN Principles for Responsible Banking: Accelerating a positive global transition for people and the planet

With over 300 signatory banks representing almost half of the global banking industry, the Principles for Responsible Banking are the world’s foremost sustainable banking framework. Through these Principles, the banking community takes action to align core strategies, decision-making, lending and investment with the UN Sustainable Development Goals and international agreements such as the Paris Climate Agreement.

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References:

This case study is based on published information by ING, located at the link below. For the sake of readability, we did not use brackets or ellipses. However, we made sure that the extra or missing words did not change the report’s meaning. If you would like to quote these written sources from the original please revert to the following link:

https://www.ing.com/Investors/Financial-performance/Annual-reports.htm

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